Beginning and Ending
Beginning In the prologue of the book set three years ago, Meggie McGregor and her employer Jasmine Hadley are chatting while Sephy and Callum are playing in the garden. Mrs Hadley is told by her secretary that her husband has come home. She goes to see him while Meggie stays outside. Meggie spends some time pondering over what Sephy and Callum will be like when they're older. Mr Hadley comes outside and starts questioning Meggie about what she as doing the night before. After Meggie answers with "I... E stayed home and watched telly." Mr Hadley slapped his wife across the face and leaves. Meggie realises that Mrs Hadley was using her as an alibi but it is to late. She is told quite sharply to go back to work. That nights Meggie is expressing her concern over what happened with her husband when she receives a phone call from Mrs Hadley's secretary. She is told Meggie she has been fired. Meggie decides to go and try and get her job back. Two hours later she comes home unsuccessful. The final sentence is "And that was the night Lynette disappeared." Ending At the end of the book Callum is being hanged for his involvement in Sephy's kidnap. He is told he must put on a hood but he doesn't want to because he wants to see Sephy. As the noose is pulled down over his head he hears Sephy screaming "I LOVE YOU CALLUM I LOVE YOU CALLUM AND OUR CHILD WILL LOVE YOU TOO. I LOVE YOU CALLUM I'LL ALWAYS LOVE YOU CALLUM." He tries to say he loves her too but the trap door opens and he drops like a stone. Sephy wonders wether or not Callum heard her and if he really did say 'I love you to." The chapter ends with Sephy thinking: "Dear God please let him have heard me please. If you're up there. Somewhere." The book ends with the book announcement of Callie Rose McGregor. Links Between Beginning and End of Book The beginning and end feature both Sephy and Callum, but their states of mind are very different from each phase in time. In the first few pages they are two young teens with minds full of pure innocence and obliviousness. Child-like actions and intentions almost, but as the first chapter moves along, their conversation is beginning to grasp the true state of their world. But they are still only scratching the surface. By the end of the story, they've both had a taste of the world they are living in and neither of them liked it but what could they do? Sephy's mind was more educated and she now knew what Noughts were fighting for, and she understood why and was completely supporting it. Callum tried to make a difference for the same cause as Sephy but in much different strategies. During the story they had gone from curious, childhood best friends to people who truly loved each other and had gone through hell fighting. The two parts are rather contrasted in a way but completely connected and relevant in others. If you include the whole storyline, it's part of an evolution of racism from two different point of views from the two different sides, and the beginning merely shows a glimpse of the contrasted lives. In a romantic point of view it's two young people who were naturally going to fall in love but things weren't in their favour because they were always going to be driven apart by the amount of racism from the public. In Callum's last chapter his last thoughts were of Sephy and his love for her, Sephy loved him equally as much and only wanted him to hear her tell him she loved him one last time before he would never be able to again. It's similar to "Romeo and Juliet", the "star crossed lovers" whose love story ended in a tragedy. Callum and Sephy's story started off as innocent and oblivious curiosity and ended with many bumps along the road as well as tragedy.